When sharing an item externally with Flatter Files you simply send a secure link. Multiple drawings can be shared with this single link. This works great for sharing a group of drawings with a specific supplier. Over time you may want to add or remove items from this link. Thus, all of the items that you share are shown and can be edited under "My Shared Items." This is very useful but it is likely that you have coworkers that might need to be able to edit this shared link or just need to verify that the supplier has indeed received the link. This is now possible with user groups. Once the item has been shared, you simply add the shared item to the user group. Once added, every user within this group will now see the shared item when they click "My Shared Items." This allows anyone in the group to verify that the drawings have been shared with the supplier, resend the link, change the password, add additional emails to the link, or delete the link.

To add a shared item to a user group. First share the item and then right click on the item under "My Shared Items." Then simply click the group that you will like to add the shared item to as shown in the image below.

A shared item can be added to multiple user groups and removed from those user groups at any time. To view what user groups that the shared item belongs to, simply click "List" in the User Group column. Once the list is displayed, the item can be removed by right clicking in the group and clicking delete as shown in the image below.

Administrators can create and edit user groups by clicking Dashboard, Settings, and Users. At this point they will see a list of the existing user groups which by default will contain a single user group called "All." There is now a button at the button that allows for the creation of additional user groups. Once the new user group is created, users are added by simply dragging users from the "All" user group to the new user group. This new user group interface is shown in the image below.

Over the past few months Flatter Files has been updated with many requested features. Here is a summary of the most significant updates:

Hide LibrariesYou can now hide custom libraries from specific users. This allows you to create libraries that are only accessible by specific people within your organization. This works great for R&D drawings and documents or to simply separate the drawings for different departments. Administrators can hide libraries by visiting the users settings and deselecting the libraries that you wish to hide from each specific user.

Multi Item ShareYou can now share multiple items at once. Simply select a group of items and then click share. Once the share is created you can select another group of drawings and then right click and select "Add to Existing Share." This allows you to perform multiple searches and continue selecting and adding items to a shared item. The person you are sharing these items to will receive an email with a single link. Clicking this link will allow them to log in with the password you provided at which point they will see a list of drawings where they can select the item to display. This list is also searchable such that large groups of items can be shared and easily accessed.

Search AppA new web application has been created that simply allows you to search for and view your content on Flatter Files. This works across all browsers and all devices. Thus, you can now access your content within mobile web browsers on Android and other mobile devices. Whenever you try to login to the main web app on any mobile browser or Internet Explorer 8 and earlier you will be redirected to this simplified search app. You can also access the search app directly at flatterfiles.com/search.

Hide Checked Out ItemsYour account can now be configured to hide checked out items from your users. Typically when a user views a checked out item the user is notified that the item is checked out and the current revision is then displayed. If you decided to hide the checked out item, the current revision is not shown and instead the user is notified that the item is checked out and not available. The option to hide checked out items can be found under company settings.

Search is a big part of using Flatter Files. Search makes finding your content super fast and easy. If you know the part number then finding a drawing is nearly instant. Just type in the part number, hit enter and the drawing will appear in the result. Many times though you don't know the part number and need to find the drawing in another manner. Here are a few advanced search methods that should make finding your content even easier.

Search using a portion of a part number

The part number field is indexed such that you do not have to match the entire value. If you know a portion of the number then the item will still be returned. For example, you may have a group of items with a part number that has a specific prefix. You can find all of those items by searching for that specific prefix.

Use the keyword OR

Searches with multiple words require that the item contains both words to be returned. Add the keyword OR between each word if you want the results to contain any of the words. For example if you want the results to include any items that contain either plate or full then the query would be the following:

plate OR full

Use the keyword NOT

Using the keyword NOT will limit the search results to only include items that don't include a particular word. For example, if you want the items that contain plate but don't include any items that also contain the word steel the query would be entered as:

plate NOT steel

Use quotes

Quotes force the search to only return items that match the words exactly as phrased in the query.

Field specific searches

Limit the search to only match values in a specific field by entering the field name and then enter a colon followed by the value. For example, to search the description field for the value plate enter the query:

description:plate

To search for all checked out items enter:

checkedout:yes

You can also abbreviate the field values to typical abbreviations. For example, description can be abbreviated to desc.

Combine field searches

To search for a description that contains the word plate and is also checked out the search would be entered as following:

desc:plate checkedout:yes

Date specific searches

To return any items that have a revision since a specific date enter the following:

date > 2013-1-1

This will result in any items that have a date newer than January 1st 2013. If you would like to search for any items that are older than a specific date then the query would be:

date < 2013-1-1

The query above will return all items that have a date older than January 1st 2013.

The advanced search methods above should greatly improve your ability to find exactly what you are looking for within your content.

Flatter Files now automatically searches all items in your library when you perform a search. Previously, a search query entered at the top right only searched the library that was currently being viewed. Now the search will return results from all of your libraries including the Assembly library. These results are shown in a new library that appears that is simply called "Library." The results for a simple search is shown below.

As you can see, the results are grouped based on the library they are located in. The results that are displayed can be fully accessed and edited in the same mannar as if you were viewing in the actual items library. For example, you can right click on an item and the same menu is displayed allowing you to perform various functions.

Performing a search of all items is the default when entering a query and pressing enter but it is still possible to search only a specific library. To search a specific library, navigate to the appropriate library that you would like to search. Enter your query and then click the magnifying glass that is located with the search field. This will open a menu as shown below.

Click "Search Library" and the search will only return results located in this particular library. The search results will be returned in the actual library that the search was performed. To cancel the search such that all items are displayed again simply click the "x" button.

Flatter Files now works with both Internet Explorer 9 and Internet Explorer 10. Unfortunately previous versions of Internet Explorer will not be supported due to a lack of modern browser capabilities. With this update, Flatter Files now supports all of the major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer).